​Our church's annual meeting was held at the beginning of the month - presided by our District Superintendent, Rev. Jim McPhee. We were blessed to have old and new faces join us as we looked back over 2015 and worshipped together. We talked about "Circles of Hope" and where we experienced them in our lives and in our community.

For those who weren't able to attend, booklets are available with all the reports - please email or call the church office and we'll be happy to get that information out to you.

I'd like to share here my report as I reflected on the past four months of ministry here on Chebeague:

Pastor’s Report 2015“Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God’s field in which we are working.

Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 3:5-11 (The Message)

These are the verses that came to mind as I think about my time here over the past 4 months and my place in the line of pastors who have served you over the many years this church has been present on this island. I am grateful for the gifts and ministries of those who have been in ministry with you all and look forward to continuing to build on the foundation of Jesus Christ and seeing what God will grow among all of us.

It is important for us to remember that Jesus Christ is the foundation of all that we do together. This is key as we look toward starting a visioning process in early 2016, hopefully with the help of Rev. Rick McKinley, the Director of Congregational Development for the New England Conference. Having a vision statement will enable us to communicate more clearly who we are as a church and what we are about as we minister to and with the people of this island and engage in mission here and around the world. The results from 2015’s community survey will help clarify not only what our role is and should be on Chebeague, but also how we are perceived in the community at large. While it is clear that Chebeague Island values the presence of the church, I believe there are ways that we can better engage the community in participation and in ministry. For this to happen, it is important for us to know who we are and why we do what we do – beyond the reason of “we’ve always done it this way!”

In addition to developing a clear vision, I believe it is also important to bring new voices to the table to help lead us forward as a body. There are many gifts with which God has equipped the people of Chebeague! However, I learned fairly quickly since coming to this place that leadership is a challenge that many organizations on the island are currently facing, and that several people wear many different “hats” throughout the community. This leads some to feeling stretched thin and some to burnout. The hope is that once the church has a clearer sense of vision and ministry, we can adopt a leadership structure that supports current ministry operations and allows for future growth in a way that is efficient, leads to less burnout, and improves communication among the various ministry teams within the church. Two steps that the Committee on Nominations and Lay Leadership has taken this year towards this end is to introduce class years on some committees to allow for leadership rotation – not only as an off-ramp for those who may want to take a break from service, but also as an on-ramp for new people to use their gifts for service to the organizational life of the church.

Secondly, we have also invited some newer people to serve on the church’s administrative council starting in 2016. This helps us “draw the circle wide” and make use of the energy, passion, enthusiasm, and gifts of the people who are connected to this church.Part of what I have come to understand about the role of the pastor on this island is that the appointment is not just to the congregation that gathers on Sunday mornings for worship, but to the whole of the island. Part of this role includes (but is definitely not limited to!): presiding over funerals and weddings (I have already officiated at 5 funerals and memorial services and one wedding), attending community gatherings like concerts and community meals, visiting those living at the Commons, and having spiritual conversations on the ferry. Being part of the community is something you value from your pastor and it is something I am learning a lot about as Ben and I continue to settle into life here on Chebeague.

Some other opportunities for ministry that we have engaged in as a church are:

Prayer on the Porch. One of the spiritual practices that Ben and I engage in together is praying every morning from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. This summer was a fruitful time for inviting others to pray with us on the parsonage porch at 9 AM on Wednesdays through Saturdays. While the weather is getting colder, Prayer on the Porch has become Prayer in the Parsonage, and we continue to invite folks to pray with us at that time on those days. If you can’t make it, you are always invited to pray with us from a distance using www.commonprayer.net.

Blessing of the Animals. We had a small crew this year come on October 4th to celebrate our furry friends and receive a blessing, but there were a few faces that were new to me.

Daring Greatly book study. We have 13 people as a part of a jointly sponsored 4 week book study between the library and the church of Brené Brown’s book Daring Greatly. A little over half of those participating have a connection with the church’s worshipping community. Our first session was October 29th, and I am looking forward to where the conversation will take us.

Reviving Sunday School. Polly Wentworth, Cheryl Hillicoss, and I have met and are working on plans for the spiritual formation of our littlest disciples. Our hope is to engage many families through the Christmas Pageant (which will be on December 20th) and use that as a basis for a Sunday School program. We are exploring grant funding for this new ministry. I am also exploring other avenues to engage our young families on the island, hoping to find new ways that the church can be in ministry with them beyond Sunday morning programming.

Facebook Page and Redeveloped Website. We have a Facebook page to engage with people both near and far! It is one way for our summer friends to stay up to date with the happenings of the church while they are away from the island, as well as another means of communicating upcoming events and issues of the day. If you haven’t “liked” us yet, visit https://www.facebook.com/chebeagueislandumc and like and share the page with your friends and family. Along with this, we are currently redeveloping our website. I give thanks for Gloria Brown, who had kept our website going for many years. I hope that we will have our new site up and running within the next couple of weeks.

Sunday Worship Celebrations. It has been wonderful to be a part of such a vibrant worshipping community; Sunday morning is a time when God’s spirit truly is present among us as we worship together. Music is a wonderful gift that you all value – and the choir adds so much to our gathering. Doing the Jazz Service was a great out-of-the-box experience you shared with the island (and I look forward to next year’s service!) We’ve done two worship series so far: Practical Faith: Lessons from the Book of James and A Season of Saints. Coming up, look forward to series on generosity, the different ways God comes to us, and how our experience of God incarnate changes our lives and the way we see the world.

There is much for me to be thankful for over these past 4 months in ministry with you all. I look forward to seeing where 2016 brings us together – even as I know that I will be missing part of the journey with you as I enter parental leave in the early part of next year. Thank you all for your welcome, your hospitality, and your love as Ben and I have started to make our home here on the island.I trust that all of us will continue to work together and see what God is growing among us as a church and among us on the island. I know that as we keep our eyes on Jesus Christ, we will keep moving forward into the future God has for us.

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Pastor Melissa Yosua-Davis has been serving the community of Chebeague and its church since July 2015. She currently lives on the island with her husband and three year old son and 6 month old daughter, along with their yellow lab. Read here recent sermon excerpts, thoughts on life and faith, and current announcements for the church community. She also blogs at Going on to Perfection.